During the past decade or so, the concept of "therapeutic angiogenesis" has emerged out of the observation that a significant number of patients are not candidates for standard revascularization procedures or have incomplete revascularization with conventional procedures like PCI or CABG. For example, in patients with two or three vessel coronary artery disease, complete revascularization was successful in 23% and 9% of cases, respectively in one report. The goal of therapeutic angiogenesis is the induction of new coronary arterial vessels that can effectively provide blood supply to the area of myocardium subtended by diseased or occluded native coronary arteries. These "native bypass" vessels could then relieve myocardial ischemia, improve regional and global left ventricular performance, lessen symptoms of angina, and potentially improve patient prognosis. Candidates for pharmacological stimulation of therapeutic angiogenesis in cardiac ischemia include angiogenic cytokines such as Fibroblast Growth Factors (FGF), Vascular Endothelial Growth Factors (VEGF), Hepatocyte Growth /Scatter Factor (HGF/SF), CXC chemokines such as interleukin 8 (IL8) and monocytes chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP-1), growth factors involved in maturation of the vascular tree such as angiopoietins and Platelet Derived Growth Factor (PDGF) and transcription factors that stimulate expression of angiogenic cytokines and their receptors such as Hypoxia-Induced Factor 1α (HIF1α).